Imade a major mistake today loading my Pietta 1851 Navy. Got distracted and placed a Wonder Wad over an empty chamber. The cap went bang and the cylinder wouldn't turn. The ball was lodged half way into the forcing cone. Of course the loading lever was lined up with an empty chamber. Finally placed a screw driver to bridge the gap over the hole and pulled off the barrel. Got the ball out of the forcing cone with the edge of a sharp knife.

Those things happen when you get distracted during loading. Make it a practice to never answer a question or acknowledge anyone in the middle of loading. It's no insult to say, "Be with you in a second.", finish loading and THEN answer the question.

How do I know this?

Was cleaning the ROA one evening when the wife dumped part of a hot soup pot on the kitchen floor. Took an hour to get it all cleaned up and of course I helped. Went back downstairs, cleaned up the work area, put the guns away and went back upstairs. Next day at the range I was demonstrating how to load the ROA for some newbies and one of them mentioned that there was black powder all over the floor and my shoes. Forgot to put the nipples back in.

You'd think you could eventually live something like that down. Believe me, ain't gonna happen.

I've never done it - YET - but I have come very close to it - but sooner or later, it happens! By the same token though, I have forgotten to cap my rifle!

I can remember being at an informal shoot with about 7 or 8 guys one Sunday - we were taking our time and just having an elimination shoot - I think we were shooting at cans or something. We were all standing there watching one of the fellows reload his flintlock rifle as he was up next and I swear that none of us even caught on that he hadn't put powder down the bore - and we were all watching him load! So I guess you could say that all of us were "boneheads" that day!

Glad you were able to get it taken care of and hope it didn't spoil the rest of your shooting time - just remember our forefathers had the same problems we do!

__________________If a pair of '51 Navies were good enough for Billy Hickok, then a single Navy on my right hip is good enough for me . . . besides . . . I'm probably only half as good as he was anyways. Hiram's Rangers Badge #63

Had a buddy that broke himself from smoking with a Thompson contender by having a lit cigarette in his mouth while putting powder in his barrel. The ashes fell from his smoke into the barrel and ignited the powder, blowing the cap off of his head, and burning his eyebrows off. He hasn't smoked another cigarette since.

Ever done the opposite: putting way too much powder in the chamber and can't even get close to seating the ball? Besides whittling the ball with a pocket knife, the Colt's are cool 'cause you can knock the gun apart rotate the bulging chamber in line with the barrel at full cock then re-attach the barrel, cap, & shoot it out. I still live by the adage that you can't overload a cap & ball revolver. So far, so good (still got all my fingers, eyes and toes).

Those things happen when you get distracted during loading. Make it a practice to never answer a question or acknowledge anyone in the middle of loading. It's no insult to say, "Be with you in a second.", finish loading and THEN answer the question.

Absolutely and if you load long enough, you will get a Dry-Ball, along with other silly stuff. Mostly just lose your place. ....
During last Saturday's hunter safety class, we had a large number of students and as usual, I do most of the talking and all of the loading. When I start loading, I tell the students to save any questions till we finished shooting. I had to load two M/L's to keep up. Even at that, a couple of times I lost track of what was loaded and not. More than once, I had to refer to my marked range-rod. Same range-rod with two marks. ...

Be Safe !!!

__________________
'Fundamental truths' are easy to recognize because they are verified daily through simple observation and thus, require no testing.

In my cap and ball shooting box are two 9" long hardwood dowels. One is 5/16" diameter for the .36s, and the other is 3/8" for the .44s.
I epoxied a fired cartridge case on each end, to keep from splitting the wood when tapping out a stuck ball: .32 ACP for the 5/16 and .40 S&W for the 3/8.
A cheap fix, and effective for tapping out a stuck ball or wad.

__________________"And lo, did I see an ugly cat. Smoke. Brimstone. Holes in parchment. And this ugly cat was much amused." --- The Prophesies of Gatodamus (1503 - 1566)

Quote
"Don't feel bad, my nephew managed to load two lead round ball projectiles into a chamber on his 1858 Remington replica, then the cylinder wouldn't turn."
I did the EXACT same thing, had to pop out the cylinder and then the extra ball. PLUS I cast me some RB's and was having trouble loading them (I suspect it was NOT pure lead I got off the person) and so I was using my Power Inc loader, could NOT get the ball down, almost bent the handle trying so hard (not really) then I looked, (I laid out the 6 balls beforehand) I was trying to seat the last ball, looked down and saw a greased wad...Hmm Now I know why it wouldn't seat..That cylinder is still loaded till I get a chance to empty it..At the range..lol

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